Let's not lose sight of the fact that to most investors the trend is one's friend. Variant views are typically rare (particularly when the trend is as powerful as the last three weeks of market advances) as they can expose managers to not only investment risk but to business risk. At the same time a variant view near inflection points can deliver alpha or excess returns -- see Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). The crowd usually outsmarts the remnants and the comfort of the herd provides most investors with a security blanket. Over the past several days the business media has been ...